Leadership and Self-Deception: The Secret to Transforming Relationships & Unleashing Results (4th Edition)
The Arbinger Institute
Berrett-Koehler Publishers (August 2024)

Getting to know — really know — yourself and others, for better or worse

The last time I checked, Amazon offers more than 60,000 books about leadership. Why another? As in residential real estate, there is a buyer for almost every home, there is a reader for almost every book about leadership. If the material in Leadership and Self-Deception helps you to accelerate your personal growth and professional development, it is worth every penny of its purchase price.

This is the 4th edition of a book first published in 2000, updated to accommodate a global business world that is today much more volatile, more uncertain, more complex, and more ambiguous than at any prior time that I can recall. According to the unidentified co-authors, “This book is about learning to understand, recognize, and mitigate self-deception. It’s about learning to see other people and ourselves clearly. We hope it helps you lead in a way that is grounded in the foundational truth that [begin italics] others matter like we matter [end italics].”

When Leadership and Self-Deception was first published, relatively few business books presented its information, insights, and counsel within a narrative format. That is,  one with fictional characters engaged in a sequence of events (i.e. plot) in a specific setting, focusing on conflicts that are ultimately resolved (i.e. climax). Details in Leadership and Self-Deception are best provided within the text, in context. Suffice to say now that most of those who read this book will be able to associate with the characters and the real-world challenges they face. I also commend the co-authors on their brilliant use of a “Group Discussion Guide” (Pages 139-146) that serves as an appendix.

These are among the other passages in which key issues are examined:

o Challenges for leadership (Pages 15-16)
o Self-deception and perception (18-20)
o Self-betrayal and self-deception (34-35)
o Objectification (49-50 and 98-99)
o Chronic self-deception and inward mindset (51-53)

o Self-image as better or worse than others (51-55, 63-66, and 76=77)
o Seeing humanity in others (73-75)
o Strengths and weaknesses (77-80)
o Authenticity and leadership (78-79 and 128-130)
o Leadership and mindset (94-96)

o Examples of collusion (101-107, 112-114, and 118-121)
o Disengagement (112-113)
o Changing mindset (115-117)
o Self-deception in organizations (147-151)
o “Arbinger Mindset Assessment” (149-151)

Translated into 3o languages, Leadership and Self-Deceptyion has sold more than three million copies, making it one of the top 50 leadership books of all time. Its value to you will be determined almost entirely by (a) how carefully you absorb and digest the material and then (b) how effectively you apply what you have learned.

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Here are two suggestions while you are reading Leadership and Self-Deceptyion: First, highlight key passages Also,  perhaps in a notebook kept near-at-hand (e.g. Apica Premium C.D. Notebook A5), record your comments, questions, action steps (preferably with deadlines), page references, and lessons you have learned as well as your responses to head notes and key points posed within the narrative. Also record your responses to specific or major issues or questions addressed or suggested in the material, especially comments at the conclusion of chapters.

These two simple tactics — highlighting and documenting — will facilitate, indeed expedite frequent reviews of key material later.